Primary Schools' Tournaments 2008

17 March 2008

PRIMARY SCHOOLS' FOOTBALL & NETBALL COMPETITIONS - 15 MARCH 2008

A new era - a new competition. With the merger of RGS Worcester and The Alice Ottley School in September 2007, Mr. Gareth Hughes, Assistant Head (Lower School) at RGSAO decided it was the ideal opportunity to hold both competitions at the school's new sports facilities at RGS The Grange. This would be the 23rd year for the Football competition, with the Netball competitions having been previously run separately by both RGS Worcester and Alice Ottley over several years. Twelve teams entered for the Football competition and eight teams for the Netball competition - it proved to be a very busy and exciting Saturday morning with approximately 500 people on the premises during the course of the day.

FOOTBALL COMPETITION

The football competition took the usual 6-a-side format but on the new all-weather surface. This provided football of the highest quality. With four teams in each of the three pools, Great Witley, St Barnabas, Perdiswell, RGS The Grange, Oldbury Park and St George's CE progressed to the second round stages. With two pools of three, the finalists and 3rd/4th place play-off team would be decide at the conclusion of this stage.
After two hours of play and twenty-four games of football the 3rd/4th place play-off game was between Great Witley and St Barnabas. At full time, the score remained at 1-1. After 5 minutes golden goal the score still remained at 1-1. The game would be decided by a penalty shoot-out. It was St Baranabas who kept their nerve to convert three of their three penalties whilst Great Witley scored two.
If that was not enough tension, the Final provided similar entertainment. RGS Grange and Perdiswell were the two teams who had made it to the Final. The final score was 0-0. Five minutes of golden goal could not separate the two teams - a penalty shoot would yet again be the final method of discrimination. Three players took a penalty in a declared order - the score remained deadlocked at 3-3! The remaining three players would then shoot in a sudden death shoot out. Perdiswell were the team who were able to keep their emotions intact on this occasion, winning 5-3 on penalties. A thoroughly exciting Final indeed where both teams had shown themselves to be teams blessed with fine individual skills who could pass with vision and finish confidently. All teams were a credit to their schools.

WINNERS : PERDISWELL PRIMARY SCHOOL

NETBALL COMPETITION

The Netball competition was held in the hard-court area adjoining the all-weather pitch. With two pools of four, all to play each other before the winners and runners-up of each pool progressed to Round 2. The four teams were RGS The Grange, Perdiswell, Oldbury Park and Springfield. All four teams were able to demonstrate high quality skills and an innate awareness of each other's positioning to create good scoring chances. It was RGS Grange and Springfield who were able to take full advantage of these chances to progress to the Final.
The 3rd/4th Play-off game between Oldbury Park and Perdiswell proved to be a very tense and exciting game, however it was Perdiswell who took the honours winning by 5 goals to 3.
The Final - RGS Grange and Springfield. After twelve minutes of nerve-wrenching netball, the score was 3-3. With both teams playing their fifth game of the morning, extra-time of five minutes each way was going to prove a 'battle of the fittest'. The score remained 4- 4 after ten minutes. The final method of discrimination would be golden-goal. After twenty -five minutes of Netball in the Final, RGS The Grange scored the winning goal and win the inaugural RGSAO Netball Competition.

WINNERS: RGS THE GRANGE

Medals for the winners, runners up and third place teams for both competitions were presented by Mr Andrew Rattue, Headmaster of RGS Worcester and The Alice Otley School.

Mr Gareth Hughes, the competition organiser thanked the students and staff of the school, all of whom were in attendance for over 4 hours of continuous duty, for their efforts in running the event. The competition could not take place at all without the support of the primary schools' teachers and parents who brought their teams to the competition and supported them so well throughout the day. Well done all!

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